Simulation and optimization of the effect of surface grooves on mineral particle separating behaviour of spiral concentrator

The spiral concentrator is a kind of gravity separation equipment. The structure optimization of mineral processing equipment is the research focus and development direction of today's mineral processing field. In order to improve the sorting efficiency of the spiral concentrator, this paper proposes the optimization method of adding certain structural forms of grooves to the groove surface of the spiral chute. The RNG turbulence model, VOF multiphase flow model, and discrete-phase particle orbital model are used to carry out orthogonal simulation experiments on the sorting process of the spiral chute engraved groove model. The results show that the optimal solution for adding grooves to the spiral chute is 45 grooves, a 30° angle, 5 mm width, and 2 mm depth, which has the most significant sorting effect. In order to verify the feasibility of the optimal scheme, a prototype of the optimal structural scheme was fabricated in this study. Comparison experiments show that the average concentrate grade obtained from the experimental prototype is 2.92% higher, and the average concentrate recovery is 3.08% higher, which verifies the feasibility of the scheme.